Periodic Table of Elements
by Kitten with a Quill
Summary: Twilight Sparkle challenges Rainbow Dash to learn the entire periodic table of elements by heart, but Rainbow has to learn it without the help of Twilight. Rainbow must learn it either on her own, or with the help of someone else. Rainbow Dash decides to turn to her other friends for help. (Rated T for some possible minor swearing)
1. The Challenge

A cyan mare with a rainbow mane and tail walked into a tree library. The Pegasus went by the Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Twilight, do you have then newest Daring Do book?" she asked.

Twilight shook her head.

"Then what will I do until the book comes into stock?" she demanded. "I already practiced all my tricks billions of times!" she exclaimed.

The princess finally spoke up and asked, "So you like a challenge, right, Rainbow Dash?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Well then, let me give you the hardest challenge pony may ever encounter."

The flyer's eyes lit up in excitement. "What challenge?"

Twilight used her alicorn magic and levitated a book. She brought it next to her. The book had a bold title on it. It said **The Periodic Table of Elements**.

"I challenge you to learn **every single** element on The Periodic Table of Elements by heart." The lavender alicorn explained.

Rainbow then started a monologue, "I'm **not** sure if I could do that, Twilight. You see, according to me challenges go according to different categories.

"There's the egghead category, which is challenges for smart ponies. There's the sports challenge, which is for athletes like me. Then, there's the cooking and baking challenge, which is pretty much for cooks and bakers like Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Then there's the other category with the rest.

"But you know what? I'm willing to accept **any** challenge that anypony throws at me.

"**Challenge accepted**." Rainbow proudly announced. "So how will we start?"

"'We?'" Twilight Sparkle asked. "I wasn't planning to help you learn it. You will have to either learn it on your own, or you will have to find someone else to help you."

"Fine. See ya later!" Rainbow waved to Twilight with her hoof and flew out of the library.


	2. Attempt 1

Rainbow was trotting through the market. She wasn't flying, but rather trotting. She was doing some serious thinking which called for a walk.

_Can I do the challenge_? Her mind asked her_. I don't know if I can do this. Learning the whole Periodic Table of Elements sounds so hard._

Suddenly she stopped and her eyes grew a bit bigger. _What am I thinking? I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do - _

The tomboy bumped into one of her best friends, Applejack, who was chuckling. "Hello, Rainbow. It's nice to bump into ya."

She then giggled. "Hehe, I made another joke."

Rainbow cocked her head in confusion. "Applejack, why are you suddenly making jokes and giggling? This is so unlike you."

"I was baking your birthday cake with Pinkie Pie. Ah shoot, I shouldn't have said that. Pinkie will kill me if she finds out. I pinkie promised that I wouldn't tell you."

Rainbow frowned. "AJ, what did I tell you? Never ever promise anything to Pinkie again if you don't want to get into serious trouble."

"What were you planning to do in the market?" the orange mare asked.

"Subject changer."

"You're hiding somethin'."

"Privacy intruder." Rainbow shot back.

Applejack face-hoofed ."Dangflabbit, I ran out of comebacks."

"I'm trying to figure out how to memorize the Periodic Table of Elements."

Applejack's eyebrows went up. "And why would you do that?"

"Twilight challenged me."

"I could try to help you."

"You could?"

"Well, sure. I'm smart too, you know."

Rainbow then smiled at the offer.

"Sis, the last apple has been sold!" a voice of a young filly echoed. Applejack and Rainbow turned their heads and saw Applebloom waving. "Did I get my cutie mark yet?"

Applejack shook her head. "Sorry, but no. Don't worry, you'll get a cutie mark. Listen, we got to skedaddle and go to our barn and Rainbow is coming."

The three ponies then walked and walked, until they reached Sweet Apple Acres. They entered the barn. Applejack immediately went to a book shelf in the living room, and searched until she found it; the book she's been looking for. "There it is."

Rainbow trotted over to look at the book. She saw the words **The Periodic Table of Elements** written across the cover. Rainbow instantly recognized the book and pointed out, "Hey, Twilight has that book too."

Applejack looked at her, and the light blue mare retorted, "I don't have the memory of a goldfish, you know."

Applebloom asked with curiosity, "What are you going to do with that book?"

"Use it as a baseball bat to play baseball." Rainbow joked and snickered. Applebloom then went into the kitchen, and the farm girl and athlete heard her loud shout, "Granny, can I use a book as a baseball bat?"

"No!" Granny Smith's answer could be heard.

"But Granny," The young cutiemark crusader whined, "AJ and Rainbow are gonna do that!"

Granny Smith went out of the kitchen and looked at her granddaughter Applejack. "What are you up to?" she asked her suspiciously.

"Don't worry, Granny," Applejack sweated nervously. "We ain't going to play baseball with a book."

"Good." Granny went back to the kitchen were Applebloom was waiting.

The two friends went up the stairs, with Applejack holding the book in her mouth. Once they both reached AJ's room, Applejack retorted, "Way to give my sister stupid ideas, RD."

Applejack opened the book and searched for the two pages with the big periodic table of elements in it. "Here it is."

She then examined it and started reading out the elements. " We have Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen – "

Rainbow interrupted her. "Whoa whoa whoa, this is how you expect me to learn it? Don't you have anything else… Like an actual damn technique to help me remember?"

The farmpony shook her head. "Nope, that's how the Apples learn things."

Rainbow got up. "Well, thanks for trying, but memorizing it isn't gonna work it. I need to find something else to help. But thanks anyway." She then flew out of her room, and out of the bran, and back to Ponyville.


End file.
